I had this old violin come in for set up and new strings sporting the old style gear head tuner. It is missing one of the screws that holds down one of the gears. I have a set of guitar tuners that are the same style but the screws are a different size. This violin is 100 years old or over. Does anyone have any Idea of where or who may have parts for these?Thanks

Hardware store is one of my options. I know that in the past I have seen them on ebay. I will just have to keep eyes open plus I wasn't sure if there is a retailer that would carry something like this. I'm going to be in Baltimore this weekend and was thinking about checking out International violins and see if they have anything laying around.

I don't think anyone sells these anymore, at least not like the old ones. I also doubt that International violins has anything "lying around," but you never know. You might have better luck someplace like Weaver's, or some shop that's been around for awhile, and might have a "junk box," maybe from where they've removed tuners like this. Maybe someone on this forum does.Good luck.

Actually IME luthiers keep old parts. They generally have a stash of such things. Take the fiddle with you and check out several violin and instrument repair shops. You may be able to find what you are looking for. Insofar as a hardware store goes that is a big maybe ….. threads and screw sizes are now likely manufactured to slightly different standards but it is worth a shot. R/

Around here, there is a hardware store that can match pretty much anything you bring in. I don't think you need anything special here, just a screw. Those tuners aren't all that desirable anyway, a little heavy, throws the balance of the instrument off. If you want to match the antiquing of the screw, I'm sure there's a YouTubes about making new stuff look old.

If you find something that fits but looks too new, just antique with vinegar and steel wool, or put a little stain on it.. NObody will notice that it is a new screw..BTW people often tell me that I have a screw loose...

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I live in a pretty remote area on eastern shore Virginia and as far as music shops are concerned they are very few and in between and far away. I did manage to go to Lowes yesterday and they had one of those screw size indexing tools and was able to determine that the thread size was 4-40. These are the screws that attach the gear down to the shaft in the tuning assembly. Not for mounting the gear head unit to the peg box. The original are brass and they had your standard zinc and phillips head not slotted as original plus a quarter inch too long but could be cut to size. No big deal. It can be used for now. Since I have the actual size now I can look on line and possibly match something up. This is the first time that I have ever dealt with one of these gear head tuners but of course have seen them on the internet for years including people taking those off and restore the peg box to use standard friction pegs. I do agree that it is a little neck heavy but the violin is in excellent shape and plays really well. The customer is not unhappy with it so there it will stay. I must also say that it does take a much longer time to string this kind of a tuning system up for a violin. The pegs are a lot smaller than a guitar tuner so a standard string winder would not work.Hey just another neat violin experience!!

Hey Bob, being a life long ebay surfer for a real long time the first thing I did was look it up and found the same tuner. If you look at my picture you will see that the screw mounting to the peg box is different between the new and old and would not want to make any modifications to it. Once in a blue moon you will find an old violin for parts that is in rough shape or someone selling one that came off of a violin. I wouldn't mind buying one for parts in case I ever run into this scenario again.

quote:Hey Doug I did call International up and they knew what I was talking about but didn't have anything laying around. It was worth a phone call though! Hopefully I have time to stop there when I go to Baltimore cause I never been.Originally posted by DougD

I don't think anyone sells these anymore, at least not like the old ones. I also doubt that International violins has anything "lying around," but you never know. You might have better luck someplace like Weaver's, or some shop that's been around for awhile, and might have a "junk box," maybe from where they've removed tuners like this. Maybe someone on this forum does.Good luck.

I checked mine, after seeing what you meant, and found that they are 4-40 but the heads are flat on both sides and larger than most screws. I have a few 4-40 brass but they are round head and smaller diameter (the heads). It may be most practical to settle for what you have found.